Vegan and vegetarian topic area

I have done a search, but cannot find anything that deals as a stand alone topic on vegan or vegetarian.

At the risk of a meat fed pitchforked mob yomping hundreds of miles to my home with a-lynching in mind, can i suggest them please?

I became a pescetarian ( fish eating vegetarian, i know you couldn't make it up.... ) last year, which was bloody difficult because i love beef, lamb, pork, chicken, turkey..... where was i.... oh yes but i watched this documentary on youtube which made me decide to cease and desist forthwith.

it was a few hours long and detailed the problems from big business and the subsequent destruction. i was going to put a link here but cannot find the video.
Greenpeace, etc all knew that 52% of global warming indicators was caused by animal farming on an industrial scale in areas like the amazon and only 13% by fossil fuels. But for political reasons they don't want to say anything, they basically said this on camera and spoke about how many people in south america had been murdered for bringing it up. Their funding will also dry up they said.

Anyway, please don't read anything into this from any business or way of life anyone reading this has. I have no problem with anyone eating meat or farming, etc. It is the scale it is being done on for profit around the world that has stopped me eating it.

Anyway, the reason for wanting this is for ideas on how to become vegan completely. Shop bought food are often boring and are quite poor. Quorn is disgusting stuff, i cannot eat mccartney sausages. So i live on cheese and cress sandwiches, beetroot, marmite crisps and peanuts during the day and dinner is either rice or potatoes with onions, mushrooms, peppers, mixed leaf vegetables. I sometimes have cod and chips or vegetarian curry.

Is there a place for this on downsizer.net?

jema

Whilst you will find plenty of opposing views on downsizer, I think that this is an idea that has a lot of validity on a site that aims to be open and pluralistic.

Nick

I've no massive interest in discussing the actual politics of it but I am finding myself cooking vegan more often, simply because a regular and welcomed guest has become vegan. He may be an awkward bastard but I want to feed him as well as I try to feed everyone.

So I'm in favour of recipes and advice. Tell me about vegan cheese. Specifically, and timely, any experience of vegan halloumi? I've spotted a commercial brand but also tofu cooked in a sandwich toaster to attempt to replicate it.

tahir

Tofu?

Dhal and rice, saag and maki di roti, pakora, there should be quite a few indian vegan recipes on here already. Quorn's OK in spag bol or similar but I think it's far tastier to just cook vegan, apart from Indian there's a whole heap of other Asian vegan dishes

Nick

Yes. But I have a specific requirement for an event, I'm afraid.

dpack

re vegan cheese, we have tried a few commercial ones which range from not cheese but edible to not edible.

tt is about to experiments with cashew cheese ,will let you know how it turns out

this thread made me have a quick look at the recipe database where i found quite a lot of vegan/veg recipes posted on merit rather than just for being critter free.

as to cookbooks the stones ones are pretty good but more veggie than vegan

I always welcome more recipes. We've got a section for them though. And I'd have thought that a vegan perspective on whatever else could fit into the existing sections too.

1000seeds

Hi all, if it were up to me i would have a separate vegan and vegetarian section. Recipes, homebrewing, suggestions, advice, where to look, etc. I didn't know pot noodles were vegan, or jammie dodgers or most bourbon cream biscuits for example. But they are. I am obviously looking for better food than that!

There have already been enquiries on this post to each other, so i think it worth its own section. Otherwise it will be a mix up of topics with non vegan and vegetarian and be difficult to view in its own right?

If it dies a death and there isn't the interest, then perhaps it can become part of the established section on recipes, preserves and homebrewing.

there are so many foods i like, vegan food doesn't necessarily mean healthy in that respect. Junk food can be vegan.

yummy!

Nick

They are, it states planned to add milk. The Vegan Society are upset

"A Burton Biscuits spokesperson said: ‘For the new reformulated recipe of Jammie Dodgers we have communicated that there is now an additional allergen of milk within the product. This is due to the addition of whey in the recipe, which gives a more rounded flavour"

They changed the recipe 18 months ago.

NorthernMonkeyGirl

I'm not sure segregating veggie stuff is useful? Recipes are recipes. Food is food. If it not clear on the title, check the ingredients...

Hairyloon

I don't care very much, but I don't think a separate vegan section has any merit.
If you do go that way, do you want to save time and trouble and ban me from it straight away?

jema

I'm not veggie or vegan, but recognize that whatever I think of those views, a lot of people see it as a core part of "sustainable and ethical" so I'm strongly in favour of giving that strand of thinking its own space.

Hairyloon

I'm not veggie or vegan, but recognize that whatever I think of those views, a lot of people see it as a core part of "sustainable and ethical"...

Well they are wrong.
It may contribute, but it is a long way from being core...

Mistress Rose

What is wrong with a thread within Recipes? We have a long one in the Grow your own section so no reason why it can't go the same way.

jema

Because whether you agree with it or not, vegan/veggie etc is not about recipes, it is a considered viewpoint.

dpack

i have no strong feelings either way regarding a separate vegan/veggie thread but fail to see why any of the relevant aspects do not fit into existing topic categories.

1000seeds

Hi all, and thanks for the correction about jammie dodgers nick.

My 'title' as such said "food related". I definitely want to keep away from the politiical and ethical side of it - there are many other avenues on this forum to discuss it. This would merely be food you can eat, as a vegetarian or vegan. There may be the odd comment, is lettuce vegan or vegetarian; that's fine!

I think everyone knows what is meant, someone mentioned cheese, for example. I think a section on these, or even sub topics within the main one is worthwhile. Especially for someone like me just beginning. Not just the vegan processed foods i mentioned we are already unknowingly in many cases, eating; but making from scratch, using alternatives. It doesn't detract from meat or dairy eaters. It's an addition. Stand alone or sub topic.

jema

Downsizer is all about tolerance and so whilst I would never want a ban on discussing the ethics, I think the mods would have to be very strict about the militant "meat is murder" brigade.
I have good friends who probably feel that way, but they don't feel the need to preach it. The net has the effect on a lot of people of letting them act in ways they never would face to face and a vegan forum would be a hot spot for this.

Hairyloon

Well if we are going there, can one of the vegans look at the care nurtured by some of the chicken keepers here and explain to me how it is exploitation?

Mistress Rose

Honey would be another case, but if we don't want to go into the ethical side of it, I think a thread in recipes still might be better.

sgt.colon

Genuine question here but why is it considered murder to kill an animal for food yet a living plant is okay to kill and eat? After all it's still a living thing.

Hairyloon

Genuine question here but why is it considered murder to kill an animal for food yet a living plant is okay to kill and eat? After all it's still a living thing.

So if that is the case, why won't vegans eat eggs? Surely no observable pain response there?

Ah, but we are exploiting the chickens.
In the case of factory farms, they are entirely right, but the argument does not hold for any poultry keepers that I know.

dpack

roadkill?

vermin on the veg? innocent bystanders? some of those are yummy, some much less so, in most systems many are bycatch or deliberate casualties to protect the veg

ps i have been a veggie /vegan eater for about 20% of my life, now i try to be an ethical omnivore

1000seeds

The last few posts give the reason why i stated food related.

I agree with the point made by sgt colon, why is it okay to eat veg and not animals? I like eating both, but my reason for changing is not about the ethics of eating animals. It is about something else as previously mentioned. There will always be the minority who disagree with the rest , i simply thought it would be nice to have a section i can get ideas from. My friend has given me lots of ideas, unfortunately i can't eat most of it as i am a fussy eater.

Making mistakes is easy too. I was eating marshmallows the other day, i bought a load for a group of us volunteers at the nature reserve i frequent, to toast. I asked if she wanted one. "No. Do you know what's in it?" "Sugar, vanilla." I said. "And?" " Oh. gelatin." They won't go to waste though.

When we make anything, a vegan or vegetarian will have an alternative way of making it. that is what i hope will come of this.

NorthernMonkeyGirl

Practically speaking, I don't see enough new posts in recipes for it to be worth subdividing. What about recipes that aren't substitutes but just happen to be veggie? I'm not going to go specifically to a veggie section, so I wouldn't come across those. You're limiting your market, in essence.